What Would Frankie Do?
by SheWhomLaughsLast
Summary: Had Frankie not died the night she was shot, what would her role have been in the years to follow? A bunch of one-shot scenes both made up and real that I thought Frankie's presence would've added a tad bit more drama to.
1. Chapter 1

"_You really think that we could end up together one day, don't you?"_

"_Yeah, I do. Why? You don't?"_

The gunshot came out of nowhere, hitting me just off centre of my chest before I had the chance to react. I staggered before falling towards the floor in what felt like slow motion, like the air around me had suddenly turned into molasses. I couldn't breathe, couldn't think. I just let the ground hit me like a truck, a heavy gush of air and blood left my mouth and seeped into the white carpet. I dug my fingers into the fibres with all my strength. As the blood leaked from my chest, I felt brain dead. I felt like there was nothing in me.

I felt hollow.

Empty.

Only a dead numbness rang through me like a bell's toll. I felt the cold fingers of death gently running along my skin and whispering poisonous promises into my ears, telling me to let go. It promised me that the sooner I let go, the sooner I could feel the peacefulness of oblivion. The sooner I could feel nothing at all anymore. No more pain, no more loneliness.

No more loneliness…I could go for that. No more wandering, no more hiding, no more running. Just peace. Peace and quiet. Just…just nothingness. No more memories of my shitty family life. I would be good with that. With non-existence.

Just as I was about to give into the embrace of Death's cold arms entirely, a glimmer of blurry silver entered my vision. The locket. _Her _locket. With it, an agonizing squeeze of my heart shook me, chasing after the numbness, letting a question to creep into my mind.

_What about Bianca? _

Another agonizing contraction pushed the numbness from my body, forcing me to move, to fight the chilling fingers caressing my mind.

I lifted my head, reaching out and fumbling for the fragile chain, ignoring the screaming from the nerves torn apart by the bullet. My finger curled around the pendant and I inhaled a gurgled breath, swallowing a mouthful of blood.

"H-help…" I croaked in agony, the tears pushing past my eyes and cascading down my cheeks. "goddamn it, someone…anyone…!"

"Frankie?"

It was that moment that her voice filled the air that I knew I had something to live for. Bianca. Bianca was what I wanted. What I needed. She wanted to love me. She _did _love me. She wasn't using me like I'd been using her, or as I had been in the beginning of this relationship. I mean, it was just another job, another way to get by. I didn't think it would mean anything in the end. I didn't think there would be anything for me…anything for us…for Bianca and me other than an imaginary fling that would end in her getting hurt.

But I didn't want her to get hurt, not when….not when she actually said she loved me and I could see it in her eyes. When she looked at me like I was heaven-sent, like I was someone—something that could be loved. That had the capability of loving and _being _loved. Like I was something that _deserved_ to be loved.

"Bianca…" I wheezed as the door flew open and there stood the brunette, dropping down to her knees in front of me, bending down to look me in the eyes.

"Oh my god! Frankie!" I heard the dialling and her crying into the phone in a terrified voice, telling what I assumed to be the phone operator to come quickly. I reached out and grabbed her forearm as she hung up, her eyes locking with mine.

"Don't…go…" I panted, begging her not to leave. Not to go anywhere. "I don't…want to…be…alone…."

"Okay, okay Frankie, I'm not going anywhere. Don't worry. You're going to be okay."

"There's…there's so much….so much I need to tell you…"

"Shh, Frankie, you'll have plenty of time to tell me everything you want to. You have to conserve your strength okay? You'll be just fine."

I hoped she was right.

I really did.


	2. Meeting Mary Margret

"_Just know that somebody cares about you. How does it feel?"_

"_It feels like clothes that don't fit."_

"_Well, then change your shirt."_

I sat by Frankie's bed side as she slept, watching her carefully, terrified that she'd slip away if I looked away for even a millisecond.

It turned out that the bullet had nicked her heart and punctured her lung, but the ambulance showed up before she lost too much blood and the doctors at the hospital were able to fix it. I exhaled a shaky breath, letting my head fall forwards onto Frankie's hand, held tightly between both of mine. Walking back into the room where I'd walked in on her had, in no way, been easy. I was halfway to wherever it was I'd been going before I decided something that took a lot of guts in my opinion.

I decided that, this time, I wouldn't be the one to run away. I'd face this thing head on and I would confront Frankie about it. She told me she loved me. I believed it one hundred percent. What she'd been doing in that room just hours before honestly didn't surprise me. It hurt like hell, of course, but I wasn't shocked. Frankie was, in many ways, one of the most interesting and complex human beings I'd ever known. One moment, she'd be in my arms, clinging to me for dear life, then the next she'd be pushing me away and acting like she didn't care.

I could've been wrong, but it was like she didn't know how to need someone, how to accept being cared for as a _good _thing, instead of some dept to be repaid later. I had hoped that I could be the one to show her that, but now…now I didn't know.

The worst part of all of this, though, was seeing Frankie dying on the floor, bleeding to death, calling out for help. Seeing the blood trickling from her lips as she begged me to stay with her. And I did. I was holding her hand in the ambulance as the medics hooked a bunch of different tubes to her body and placed a mask over her mouth and nose.

And now here we sat, her unconscious and me worried to the point of nausea.

"Bianca?" I jumped when I heard her croak my name, looking up and meeting the confused eyes of the girl who'd just been shot.

"Hey, Frankie. How are you feeling?" She cleared her throat and winced.

"Like the desert decided to move into my mouth and an elephant chose to sit on my chest." I let go of her hand before she noticed I was holding it and poured her a cup of water.

"Here." I said, holding it out to her. She reached for it, stopping when she noticed her hand shaking almost violently. "I got it." I touched the rim of the cup to her mouth and gently tilted it back just enough that the water trickled past her lips before setting it back down.

I sat on the edge of the bed and she closed her eyes again. "So…" I said, feeling tears begin to well in my eyes. I wiped them away but couldn't stop my voice from trembling. "Are you…are you okay? You're not in a lot of pain or anything?" She shook her head and sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "You scared me so bad, Frankie." A small sob punctuated my sentence and she looked at me, a unique kind of grief in her eyes.

"Bianca, don't cry. I'm not dead." Her tone was slightly more abrasive than I'd expected it to be. Almost aggravated.

"Why are you mad?" I asked, taken aback by the standoffish voice she used. "I mean, I walked in…and then when I came back you were half dead!"

"I know, I know, Bianca." She looked away from me again.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No, Bianca. I just…I just don't…"

"You don't what?"

"I don't deserve your love or your worry." I felt my face morph into a total look of shock. What was Frankie talking about? I mean, she had a knack for being abrupt, but this was way far out of my capacity at the moment. "How could you still care about me after I went and did that?"

"Frankie, what are you talking about?" She looked at me then, her eyes filled with a look that was an interesting mix of several emotions: shame, guilt, fear and that last feeling that was almost impossible to describe. That look that someone gets in their eyes when they're terrified of losing someone, when they know that they've done something so horrible that it'll make you question everything about your relationship with them.

It was that look when they were begging you to understand, but knowing that you wouldn't. That you couldn't.

"Your mother was right, Bianca, all along…" My heart hit the floor when her voice hitched in her throat. "I'm a fake, a phony, a –"

"Con artist." She nodded, a single tear rolling down her cheek. She made no effort to wipe it away.

"And you were my target."

**+/+\+**

She sat there as I processed all the information she'd thrown my way. She looked at her hands in her lap, wiping her nose on the back of her hand as she sat there sniffling, keeping silent.

She admitted everything. From Vanessa bringing her here to her plan to expose her to the police, tell them everything she knew about anything. Even if it meant she would get jail time herself, if she wasn't granted immunity for helping the police put Vanessa away for drugs and anything else she was or had done.

She told me that she was willing to go along with what Vanessa's plan had been for the beginning of our relationship. She wanted my money and everything else she could get from me. But all that changed the day I told her I loved her. She said that, if someone as pure as myself could love her, there must be something in her worth salvaging. She said that she fell in so deeply in love with me that she knew that she could be anything she wanted. That she could protect me from both Vanessa and herself. The old Frankie. It made her want to be better.

As for the guy she was with, she didn't try to pitch me an excuse. She said that she was stoned and she just…she didn't even know. She was sorry, I knew that much. I'd never seen the look she had one her face on anyone. It was as if she was watching the world fall apart and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

I should've hated her. I know I should have. She'd tried to help her aunt exploit me and my mother. She tried to help her psychotic aunt hurt my family and then, to top it all off, she cheated on me.

But was it wrong that I couldn't? Was it wrong that I couldn't stand to see her so destroyed by what she had been doing? That I still loved her like I had a day ago? That I loved her more now than I had then?

She had done wrong, that much was obvious, but she wanted to right what she had done. She wanted to protect me. She got shot because she wanted to defend me from Vanessa.

So, I rose from my seat and sat by her on the bed, bringing her forehead towards my lips and kissing it gently. To my surprise, she didn't freak out. Instead, she grasped my forearms and held my hands to her face gently. "I'm so sorry, Bianca. I'm so, so sorry." She sobbed, "I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you…"

"Shh, Frankie." I whispered, pulling her into me and holding her tightly, feeling my own tears begin rolling down my face. Her arms wrapped around my waist, her face buried in my shoulder. "I love you too. I'll always love you." It was at this point that I was glad I had the hospital looking out for my mother, ensuring she was kept away from Frankie's room. I couldn't risk her upsetting Frankie right then, making her more stressed than she already was with the injuries she had. "No more secrets okay? No more lies." She nodded and pulled back when someone cleared their throat from the doorway. I turned around, expecting it to be my mother and was ready to jump into attack mode if she started yelling. But what I saw surprised me. It was Frankie by the door. Or, at least she looked exactly like Frankie, she just dressed more feminine.

"Sorry to interrupt." She said and I pulled away from the real Frankie to move back to my seat. Frankie kept her eyes from the new arrival. "Hey, Frankie." Other Frankie said, but made no move into the room.

"Hey, Maggie." Frankie said, and Maggie turned her look on me. Was it weird that, even though I knew she wasn't Frankie, her eyes gave me the same little jolt that my girlfriend's did. "This is Bianca." Maggie smiled at me and walked forwards at the same time I stood up, taking her hand in a handshake.

"It's nice to meet you." Maggie said and I stared at her blankly for a moment before nodding.

"Yeah, yeah same here." I sat back down and Maggie sat on the end of Frankie's bed.

"So, sis," Frankie said, crossing her arms over her chest "what brings you to Pine Valley?" before Maggie could answer, David walked in, clip board in hand. He stopped when he saw the twins(?) and a surprised look crossed his face.

"Mary Margret?"

"David?"

"Mary Francis, Bianca." Frankie said sarcastically, pointing from herself to me. "Now, can we just skip to the part where Doctor David tells me I can go home so I can get out of this paper bag princess get-up?" despite myself, I couldn't keep the smile off my lips at Frankie's inpatients. Neither could David or Maggie.

"well, unfortunately, Frankie, I want to make sure there's nothing that went wrong with your surgery, so I'll need to keep you another night, at the very least."

"Oh come on David, I've been here how long?"

"Three days." I murmured.

"Three days!" Frankie paused. "Three days?" she looked at me, surprised. I nodded and she looked dumbstruck. "Wow. I don't know if I should be freaked or impressed."

"Fine, Frankie, I'll let you out _if _you can find someone to look over you tonight, someone who can call if something goes wrong."

"I'll do it." Maggie and I said at the same time. We looked at each other and Frankie rolled her eyes.

"See, David? Two bona fide baby-sitters signed, sealed, delivered straight to your door. Now, can I go home?" He shook his head and chuckled, signing something on what I assumed was the release sheet.

"I should've known a bullet through the chest wouldn't keep you down for long. I release you into your sister's and Bianca's custody, but if anything happens you call me, even if it's three in the morning." I nodded and turned back to Frankie who shot me a cocky smirk.

"look, Biancala!" she said pointing a thumb over at Maggie. "Sometimes you don't even have to be drunk to see double." I rolled my eyes

"Alright, crazy girl, let's get you home before something else happens that stops you from making it out of here alive."

"Before that, I wanna stop by the police station, tell the coppers about Vanessa." Frankie said, certainty in her voice that told me she knew she was doing the right thing. I smiled at her

"Wait, what does Aunt Vanessa have to do with anything?" Maggie asked and Frankie patted her shoulder.

"We can explain on the way, Mags."

**Alright, to be completely honest, I haven't actually sat down and watched a full episode of AMC, I only know Bianca's story line. Which is how I stumbled upon FAB, which I believe (don't hate me Minx fans) that they're the best Bianca related couple just based on the huge contrast between the two of them. So, if I get facts wrong, forgive me. I'm trying.**


End file.
